ABOUT US AND OUR TEAM

WHY DOES THE STREET SOCCER FOUNDATION EXIST?

In today’s society, everybody should have a place to live. But – more young people across England and Wales are becoming homeless with the situation getting worse.

Homelessness among young people in particular, is a major social problem:

  • 1 in 200 people in England are today homeless or living in inadequate housing
  • Rough sleeping has risen by 169% since 2010
  • This year, 320,000 people were recorded as homeless in Britain… a rise of 13,000, or 4%, on last year's figures. This is equivalent to 36 new people becoming homeless every day.

(All statistics courtesy of Shelter, 2018)

Young people with experiences of homelessness are one of the most vulnerable groups in society. Often a core reason for becoming homeless is a relationship breakdown which can stem from being long-term unemployed: 49% of cases have been reported where the primary cause of youth homelessness is a family breakdown; and 44% of these cases have shown these young people not being in Work, Education or Training (NEETS).

In England there are now more than 1 in 7 young people currently unemployed and in need of our help.

Homelessness is an isolating and destructive experience and homeless people are some of the most vulnerable and socially excluded in our society. The Street Soccer Foundation exists to help see an end to youth homelessness and youth unemployment in the UK.

In 2016 our Street Soccer Academy being run in partnership with West Ham United was featured on the BBC’s ‘Match of the Day’ show. The video here features Jodie, who came onto our course as a 19-year old living in temporary sheltered accommodation in Kent.  Completing the course, she appeared in our interview with the BBC, and went on to be successfully selected to represent England at the Homeless World Cup in 2016. Jodie is now a Young Ambassador for the Foundation.

Our Street Soccer courses unite people from all different kinds of backgrounds to come together to support a greater sense of well-being within their local community. Helping people to realise their true potential.

ABOUT OUR FOUNDER

Keith is a multi-award-winning entrepreneur and business leader recognised by the Centre for Entrepreneurs (CfE) and The Sunday Times as one of the UK’s most successful Businessmen supporting the next generation. He has more than a decade of experience working primarily in the areas of Enterprise and Employability and specifically for the benefit of the UK youth population. In his younger days, Keith played for Millwall, Gillingham and Charlton Athletic but never quite made the grade to become a full-time professional footballer. Keith formed The Street Soccer Foundation in 2015 after learning of Homelessness statistics across England. He wanted to help the situation to benefit local communities and make a difference in young people’s lives knowing the power of football. After receiving (non-financial) support from the PFA and securing a partnership with a Premier League Football Club to both launch the charity and deliver the programme, The Street Soccer Foundation was up and running and hasn't looked back since.

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Keith Mabbutt, Founder & CEO

OUR STREET SOCCER UTD TEAM

The Street Soccer Foundation Leadership team is supported by the Street Soccer Foundation family: our very own Street Soccer United. A mixture of Business Advisors and Mentors, Supporters and Sponsors, and our brilliant Delivery Partners, made up of FA qualified Football Coaches and Education & Employability qualified professionals at the professional Football League Clubs we partner with.

Street Soccer Utd Leadership Team

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Keith Mabbutt, CEO

As Founder & CEO, Keith leads by example and oversees both the delivery of the Academy programmes and the overall growth and development of the Foundation.

“Ultimately, The Street Soccer Foundation is a non-profit charitable partnership. A collective of game-changing minds all committed to wanting to help end youth unemployment and homelessness in this Country and to inspire the next generation to believe in themselves to affect the best possible outcomes”.

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Adam Lawrence, COO

Adam has developed great experience within the education & training and charity sectors, having previously held roles as the Chief Executive Officer of Gillingham Football Club Community Trust, as well as delivering education at professional football clubs as a qualified teacher.

Having previously gained a degree in Sports Development and Coaching Sciences at Bournemouth University and later completing a PGCE in Secondary Education, Adam has a track record of developing unique education and training provisions for groups across the South East.

A qualified PE teacher, Adam also has good experience and understanding of schools, and of delivering sports sessions and projects to young people.

“The Street Soccer Foundation has such passion to support vulnerable people through sport. I am honoured to be a part of the team, which strives daily to develop innovative and unique projects to help others.”

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Fran Boorman, Head of Strategy & Corporate Partnerships

Fran has spent the last decade building successful multimillion pound businesses and brings a wealth of strategic knowledge to the team. Across a diverse range of industries, Fran’s core values are to Give, Connect and Grow.

She has supported over 1,000 people to establish their own successful businesses and continues to be a key spokesperson for enterprises in the UK. Around her business interests she is an enthusiastic keynote speaker and has extensive experience in building and delivering leadership development programs.

Fran also has sport in her blood having spent most of her youth as a competitive skier achieving many national titles.

“In the relatively privileged society that we live it is shocking that so many young people face challenges such as having a safe place to sleep at night. The work that The Street Soccer Foundation do is not only courageous, but also essential. The vehicle of football unites all cultures, backgrounds and ages and becomes the perfect catalyst for change. I feel honoured to be part of such fantastic organisation that is making a real impact and literally changing lives.”

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Kay Skelton, Head of Community

Kay has had more than 30 years’ experience in Sport and particularly Football. She has worked at all levels of football from grass roots to elite across non-league and professional clubs.

She is passionate about changing lives using the power of football to engage all ages and has championed many projects delivering life changing outcomes for individuals and local communities that include sports participation, education, employability, health and inclusion programmes and empowering communities to be stronger and more cohesive.

Kay was also part of the Government working group on the ‘Change for Life’ programme and won an industry award for Innovative Partnership work for her work with communities.

“I believe that everyone deserves a second chance and has access to services to support their needs and to be able to take part in activities at all levels regardless of ability, educational attainment or background.”

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Kevin Tewis-Allen, CMO

A visionary entrepreneurial commercial marketing strategist who leads with game changing ideas from concept to delivery. Most famed for his work towards the Gen-Z audience in entertainment, creative agency and professional services but also millennials through his work with Facebook and UNILAD.

“My aim has always been to be a strong change agent, to cut through the noise, positively disrupt markets in order to create sustainable, LOVED challenger brands. My ethos is that It’s not about being first anymore, it’s about being the best on a regular basis.”

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Laurence Hayes, Finance Director

Laurence has more than 20 years’ corporate finance and fund management experience advising on transactions with a total value in excess of £15 billion.

He is also a comedy novelist, researcher in Artificial Intelligence at Imperial College London, and founding alumnus of Google's Singularity University at NASA Ames Research Center.

“Once Keith formed The Street Soccer Foundation and told me as to why he had done so I immediately wanted to support him. The work of the Foundation is crucial to give disadvantaged young people a supporting hand to develop and create a better future for themselves.”

Street Soccer Utd Key Players

Ash Lawrence
Ash Lawrence, Chief Mindset Coach

Ash has a PhD in Business and Sports Psychology and Philosophy. He helps various elite sports and business people overcome limiting thought patterns that prevent them performing at the very highest level. A fully qualified NLP Master Practitioner and graduate of The Masterclass of Corporate Coaching from The Coaching Academy, he has been trained by some of the leading NLP trainers in the world including John Seymour, Paul McKenna and Dr Richard Bandler. Ash is also a fully qualified Cognitive Behavioural Therapist (CBT) and specialises in Mindset re-programming for life success. Ash works with numerous professional footballers both in the Premier League and EFL and a number of elite sportsmen and women across a variety of other sports including Cricket, Swimming, Athletics, Golf and Tennis. “The Street Soccer Foundation is providing a much needed service to young homeless people. Football is a fantastic way to get young people back into stable housing and full-time employment and we’re achieving on doing just that.”

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Neil Dickson, CTO

Whilst I was at school my teacher told my mother that I was very "creative and imaginative", but the way they said it was with a sort of upward inflection on the sentence that almost made it sound like a bad thing. It was that creativity and imagination that I decided to funnel into my future career as a time travelling ninja vampire hunter.

I also found it useful for my career in marketing and design. I managed to complete 2 degrees one in design (specialising in web design) and one in fine art illustration. Uni was where I met Carrie and after a short while we both decided that working for other people sucked so we started our own company.

We wanted to do things our own way, we wanted to help people and to enjoy life and hopefully get our clients to enjoy working with us. It didn’t matter that we’d have to do that from a room over my parents garage with no heating.

We pretty much had no idea how to run a company so Carrie kept her day job a little longer an I spent every waking moment reading and researching. I'd figured out enough to get us going so it was time to cut the safety line, Carrie left her day job. The company was born and we continued to read and research. We've spent time with mentors and experts and marketing specialists and we're still looking for more. We'll never be finished with learning how to do things better but we like to think we're doing well.

It’s fair to say we’ve had some success with our business we’ve worked with various companies charities and organisations of all sizes from small business with just one person in them to worldwide brands like ITV’s “I’m a celebrity get me out of here”. Some of our clients have even told us that they’ve picked up celebrity clients of their own since they started working with us though we’re swore to secrecy as to who those celebs are.

A couple of years ago we asked my sister Alicia to join us in the company and Clockwork Moggy is, at the time of writing this, in its 9th year and going strong. We all love working for ourselves and pushing the business. So why do we call ourselves Clockwork Moggy? I know you wanted to ask. It portrays the two things we think are really important to our business, Friendly customer service and efficient time keeping.

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Paul Stewart, Club Liaison Officer & National Ambassador

Paul Stewart is an English former professional footballer who played top flight football for Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool, and was capped three times at senior level for England. Having started his professional career at Blackpool, Paul was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Bloomfield Road when it was officially opened by former Blackpool player Jimmy Armfield in April 2006. In November 2016, Paul came forward as a victim of child sexual and physical abuse when he played at youth level. He released his autobiography in September 2017, ‘Damaged’ – Paul Stewart, My Story. Paul is an Ambassador for The Street Soccer Foundation and leads on our Club liaison with partnering football clubs delivering our programmes nationwide.

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Andrew Norton – Academy Tutor
A 1st class honours graduate from the University of Kent, Andrew has spent the past 6 years working extensively across multiple sports/exercise disciplines in strength and conditioning, football coaching and sports massage, having qualified in all of the above fields. A keen interest to detail and intrigue to learn more has seen Andrew seize upon every opportunity that he has been presented with at Street Soccer. I support the Street Soccer Foundation because it gives me the opportunity to impart the knowledge I’ve learnt to people who want to make a difference and do something they enjoy.
Nina Sawetz
Nina Sawetz – Media Enquiries
Having set up her first business at 18, Nina is Founder and MD of Future, and one of the UK’s most successful PR consultants. Launched in 2017, Future manages national and global publicity for CEOs and brands with turnovers of £5M - £100M+. The agency raises the corporate profiles of entrepreneurs and business leaders, turns CEOs into influencers, establishes brand credibility to earn consumer trust, and manages launch campaigns to improve sales. Nina has worked with the likes of Joanna Jensen (CEO, Childs Farm), Paul Aitken (CEO, Borro), Jim McCarthy (CEO, Poundland), Martin Forbes (CEO, Cox Automotive), Phil Jones (MD, Motors.co.uk), Steve Moore (CEO, Flight Club), David Kosky & Elliot Gold (Co-Founders, Work.Life), Matthew Sanders (CEO, Zoek) and Keith Poole (MD, Suits Me), as well as Goodyear Tyres (UK&I/EMEA) and AXA PPP healthcare. In 2018 Nina won WeWork's Mission Possible entrepreneur programme, and has been shortlisted as UK Entrepreneur of the Year at the DEA Awards. For any media enquiries, please contact +44 (0)7387 171582 or email nina@thisisfuture.co.uk.
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Garnet Johnson, Head of Fundraising

Garnet is an accomplished Business Development Professional. He has worked for over 25 years designing and developing innovative projects for children and young people. Garnet has raised over £20 million of funding during this time working for YMCA Thames Gateway, KCFN & Groundwork South. Whilst working for the YMCA, Garnet reformed the football team that unearthed the talents of Glen Johnson, formerly of Chelsea and Liverpool. He appeared on Sky Sports and secured sponsorship and funding for the club. From the age of 11 Garnet played with the likes of Ian Wright and others that went on to become professional footballers. “Football gave us the opportunity to channel any negative behaviour and helped us to focus on our strengths not just our abilities.” For Garnet, the Street Soccer Foundation is no different. The young people we work with are empowered to take positive action, to begin to believe in themselves and in their capacity to reach their goals and to become more engaged which increases their own learning success. I share that vision and am honoured to be a part of this quality team.

Chris Newberry
Chris Newberry, Head of Video Production
Chris has over 20 years’ experience in professional film and video production. From corporates and commercials through to narrative films. He loves creativity and how it can help deliver a message. He is the Managing Director of Wildwood Media, a full service production house, which works with clients nationwide producing original content for web, internal and external uses. He produces classic corporates, animation, 'outside-the-box' ideas, aerial filming and photography and 360 video. Chris has a strong focus on CSR and organisations, charities and companies that are trying to help people and make the world a better place. “This is why we are delighted to be working with The Street Soccer Foundation.”
Freddie Wilson
Freddie Wilson, Apprenticeships & Training Manager

Freddie is a highly experienced professional and semi-professional footballer, coach and manager with a passion for coaching, education and development. He has experience with mentoring and coaching at community and elite level and managing traineeship and apprenticeship programmes, assessing and mentoring young coaches to Support the Delivery of PE and School Sport. Having previously been a professional football at Charlton Athletic and later a semi-professional around Kent and the south-east and later gaining a UEFA “B” coaching qualification and TAQA Assessors qualification, Freddie has a track record of developing and delivering on KEIBA award winning apprenticeship programmes. “The Street Soccer Foundation has provided our apprenticeship programme with candidates who have progressed into an apprenticeship in PE and School Sport. Through the support, advice and guidance, The Street Soccer Foundation has provided fantastic information, advice, guidance and support to enable Young people to become Apprenticeship Ready. I'm delighted to have joined this brilliant organisation for the benefit of others.” .”

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Dan Packham, Official Photographer
Dan is a Kent based portrait photographer who exclusively produces all photography for The Street Soccer Foundation and our partnering organisation, Goal 17.

HELP US AND GET INVOLVED WITH THE STREET SOCCER FOUNDATION

Like football, it’s a team game. The Street Soccer Foundation is a partnership-led social project. We count on the support of local employers and business professionals to team up with us to make a real impact for the benefit of vulnerable and homeless young people in local communities across the country.

We’re always happy to hear from individuals who have key strengths they can bring to the team along with a passion for helping others. And with the help of Official Business Supporters, we continue to change lives.

GET INVOLVED AND BECOME A SUPPORTER

If you’d like to get involved and help support your local community please get in touch with us via the Contact page.

Together, CHANGING LIVES THROUGH FOOTBALL.